The Role Of Staking UARTs On UniArts
Staking crypto today is a somewhat common practice across several blockchains and platforms, but the reasons as to why they’re done may differ slightly from one to the other, depending on the project.
Proof-of-Stake was first introduced almost a decade ago, and took years to reach some level of commonness. It is generally used for security and governance, and helps maintain decentralization. While those are true to an extent for UniArts, there’s far more to it.
Security & The Slashing Mechanism
UniArts has created and deployed a slashing algorithm to protect the network from attacks and unstable block validation; this is done by punishing the validator and their voters, in which case pledged tokens are slashed by a certain percentage.
For the slash algorithm to perform that, it has to confirm the sequence as well as the priority of the tokens being slashed. Unlocked tokens get slashed first, after which the staking system follows the order of unlocking expiration, thus slashing those with the earliest expiration dates.
Decentralization & Governance
As is present on other platforms, staking on UniArts serves to help with governance and decentralization. UART holders can participate in the voting process and become a part of constructing the network and ecology.
This voting function is due to the substrate technology that UniArts uses for on-chain governance, the primary function of which is to process major events and future proposals for system improvements.
Thanks to this process, the platform remains decentralized and holders of the token can have a say in many of the changes proposed by the team, and help steer the project in their desired direction.
But it doesn’t end there.
Validators & Nominators
These two are core parts of UniArts’ NPoS mechanism, and play important roles not just in regards to pure function, but also for the democratization of arts. Both stake UARTs, but are fundamentally different.
Validators: In addition to staking, validators set up nodes, pack blocks and promote NFTs and NFT binds with nodes. They play a key role in maintaining the network and in return for packing blocks on the chain, they earn rewards.
Nominators: Nominators also stake UARTs, and nominate validators by voting for their favorite NFTs. Like their counterparts, for their efforts, nominators are rewarded with UARTs in return.
The Sweet End-Result
What the validators and nominators together accomplish is the democratization of art. It is they, more so the nominators, that decide what art pieces get the support and popularity on the platform and amongst the community.
It is the voices of the latter that decide the fates of NFTs created on the UniArts chain, which is arguably the fairest process that art can go through. On the note of fairness, much about art is subjective, and not all votes, or lack thereof, imply a lack in quality.
Nevertheless, this process enables artists in more ways than one, as works that gather many votes receive grants, support and incubation on the platform. Democratization of arts is the future of NFTs, and there is no better way to achieve that than by connecting the artists with those that appreciate the creative means of expression.
